But people who have debt problems also tend to have lower income, and it can't all be blamed on "poor decision making". My credit rating was abysmal shortly after college when I was in a low paid job and juggling payments around based on what bills could afford to pay and shifting debt to credit cards. And that low credit rating meant that the cost of credit was high, making it that much worse.

But now that I have a good income, it's easy to pay bills on time, or even early, even if a payroll snafu that's not even my fault means my paycheck is late, I have plenty of cash in the bank to pay bills.